Kane Williamson has not given up on playing a part in New Zealand’s 50 overs World Cup campaign but said he was taking his recovery from a right knee injury on a week-to-week basis.
The elite top-order batsman suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while fielding for the Gujarat Titans in the Indian Premier League and underwent surgery in early April.
Williamson said he was making progress but ensuring the knee mended properly was his overriding priority ahead of getting back on the pitch at the World Cup in India in October and November.
“Very much just trying to keep it week-to-week at the moment,” he said yesterday. “I haven’t had such a long-term injury before but talking to other people that have, the journey is a bit of a long one so if you look too far ahead it probably can become a little bit daunting. Whereas, one week at a time, ticking off those small markers, those little wins that are nice to experience. But also knowing that the journey won’t be completely smooth and you have a few setbacks along the way that you have to navigate.”
Williamson’s batting helped New Zealand to the final of both the 2015 World Cup in Australia and the 2019 edition, where they lost to hosts England in a dramatic Super Over.
The 32-year-old, who has scored 6,554 ODI runs and is New Zealand captain in both short formats, said any training he was doing was “elementary” at the moment and he looked forward to getting back into the nets.
“Probably more for sanity and changing things up ... just nice to mix up all the gym work and the physio work and rehab specific stuff to spend a bit of time with some of the other guys that are training,” he said. “Super keen to get back in the nets, for sure.”
England won’t change attacking
approach, says Ollie Pope
England will not change their attacking philosophy in the second Ashes Test against Australia at Lord’s this week despite falling agonisingly short in a thriller at Edgbaston, vice-captain Ollie Pope said yesterday. Australia weathered England’s Bazball approach - the gung-ho style masterminded by coach Brendon McCullum and adopted to great effect by Ben Stokes’s team - and squeezed home by two wickets.
While generally applauded, some have criticised England’s decision to declare with two wickets standing on a frenetic opening day, and the way they lost wickets on day four as they set Australia a total of 281 for victory.
England’s best batsman Joe Root was stumped charging down the pitch at Australian off-spinner Nathan Lyon having scored 46 from 55 balls in the second innings and other batters made good starts but failed to cash in.
“I know sometimes it can look like it’s just moments of madness but all the decisions that are made are well thought out with a vision of the end goal,” Pope told a news conference.
“These decisions aren’t just a rash thought. They are well thought out and spoken about by senior players in the changing room. We come to a group decision and back that decision 100%. There’s no looking back on that decision once it’s made.”
Another defeat at Lord’s would leave England’s hopes of reclaiming the Ashes hanging by a thread and facing a first home series defeat by Australia since 2001.
“We might find ourselves in a similar situation this week, who knows? That’s what Stokesy and Baz (Brendon McCullum) are very good at, they read conditions very well,” Pope said of whether England could again declare early. We’ll talk consistently throughout this test match, if there’s a decision like the first day at Edgbaston.